A flood for clean water

There is no need for people to suffer because of filthy water. That's why World Vision, the Clinton Global Initiative, and Procter & Gamble are calling on friends, supporters, and partners to come together for the Flash Flood for Good.

Rich Stearns, president of World Vision U.S., calls us all to make a difference today.

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In southeastern Ethiopia, I visited a place where thousands of people and thousands more animals gather every day next to a fig tree to share a precious commodity: water.

“All my life I have gotten water from here,” said Gemeda Fojora, a 42-year-old father. “It’s first come, first serve. Everybody comes, including livestock.”

Watching livestock drink from the same water people use for drinking and cooking is unnerving. “Usually women and children come here,” said Gemeda. At night, he said, the monkeys come, too, to drink and bathe in the same water used by the villagers.

Lema Kebede, 13, said he hates the monkeys. “People wash in this water. Monkeys drink from this water. Donkeys drink from this water. Cows drink from this water. Camels drink from this water. It makes me sad, because it is not clean,” he said.

Nearly 800 million people drink water like this, and often they have to walk for miles just to access it. Parasites and bacteria in these water sources lead to the deaths of more than 2,000 children under 5 every day. There is an African saying: Water is life. But in many places, this essential resource is also death.

Rich Stearns, president of World Vision U.S., watches villagers in Ethiopia gather water during a trip in 2009. (Photo: Jon Warren/World Vision)

Flash Flood for Good is a 72-hour campaign to raise awareness and help provide everyone a glass of clean water. This is what World Vision does every 30 seconds. Twice every minute, we provide clean water to someone on our planet who doesn’t have it.

Please help us spread the word by joining celebrities such as Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Bridges, and many others to reach over 200 million people over these 72 hours.

Watch this short video to find out more:

This campaign between Procter & Gamble, World Vision, and Clinton Global Initiative launched on Tuesday. You, along with millions of others, have the opportunity to spread the word and to donate $10 to provide a child with clean water for a year.

World Vision is proud to be the exclusive beneficiary of these donations. As the leading non-governmental organization providing clean water to the rural world, these gifts will enable us to provide clean water to 6 million people over five years through Procter & Gamble’s unique water purification packets, which turn water from dirty to drinkable.

But the success of this program hinges on you. With your prayers and support, we can provide clean water to the people who need it in Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Myanmar. Right now, World Vision is reaching a new person with clean water every 30 seconds. But when it comes to the global water crisis, that’s simply a drop in the bucket. Eight hundred thousand children still die annually as a result of unsafe water.

We have to do more. To make a real difference, we need a Flash Flood for Good. And that means we need you.

Every day, 2,000 children die from diarrhea caused by unsafe water. World Vision is the chosen implementing partner of Flash Flood for Good, a social media movement to bring clean water to children. A $10 donation provides a child in a World Vision program with clean water for a year. Join the movement!